Bogormen

Title: Here One Moment
Author: Liane Moriarty
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 2.5/5
# pages: Audiobook ~16 hours
Date read: June 2025

Aside from a delay, there will be no problems. The flight will be smooth, it will land safely. Everyone who gets on the plane will get off. But almost all of them will be forever changed.

Because on this ordinary, short, domestic flight, something extraordinary happens. People learn how and when they are going to die. For some, their death is far in the future—age 103!—and they laugh. But for six passengers, their predicted deaths are not far away at all.

How do they know this? There were ostensibly more interesting people on the flight (the bride and groom, the jittery, possibly famous woman, the giant Hemsworth-esque guy who looks like an off-duty superhero, the frazzled, gorgeous flight attendant) but none would become as famous as “The Death Lady.”

Not a single passenger or crew member will later recall noticing her board the plane. She wasn’t exceptionally old or young, rude or polite. She wasn’t drunk or nervous or pregnant. Her appearance and demeanor were unremarkable. But what she did on that flight was truly remarkable.

A few months later, one passenger dies exactly as she predicted. Then two more passengers die, again, as she said they would. Soon no one is thinking this is simply an entertaining story at a cocktail party.

If you were told you only had a certain amount of time left to live, would you do things differently? Would you try to dodge your destiny?


Very, VERY slow-moving. Not enough to make me consider giving up on it, but far more so than I had expected.

As many other reviews stated - one's enjoyment of this book is 100% dependent on whether or not you care for Cherry. I didn't dislike her - as some did - but I by far preferred the chapters that didn't revolve around her. Which is a shame, as she was ultimately the main character, and I turned out to just not care either way.

I wasn't disappointed by the ending - it couldn't really have gone any other way - but I'm not sure the book as a whole worked for me. And it definitely didn't need to be as long as it was! (SIXTEEN HOURS!!!)

(I still want to know what happened with Ethan though! Did feel like we were left hanging there!)

Title: About a Boy
Author: Nick Hornby
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 3/5
# pages: 278
Date read: July 2023

Will is thirty-six but acts like a teenager. Single, child-free and still feeling cool, he reads the right magazines, goes to the right clubs and knows which trainers to wear. He's also discovered a great way to score with women at single parents' groups, full of available (and grateful) mothers, all waiting for Mr Nice Guy. That's where he meets Marcus, the oldest twelve-year-old in the world. Marcus is a bit strange: he listens to Joni Mitchell and Mozart, he looks after his Mum and he's never even owned a pair of trainers. Perhaps if Will can teach Marcus how to be a kid, Marcus can help Will grow up and they can both start to act their age.

I've never seen the movie, so I went into this read completely blind. It was very different from what I had expected, but well-written and poignant. I actually really appreciated that the main relationship wasn't romantic, but the relationship between Will and Marcus. I also liked Ellie a lot, and was happy to see how that friendship turned out.

It's not a book I'm likely to reread - and I don't know that it made me want to watch the movie either - but I'm glad to have read it.

Title: The Power of One
Author: Bryce Courtenay
Genre: Fiction, cultural
Rating: 3.5/5
# pages: Audiobook ~22hrs
Date read: November, 2022

In 1939, as Hitler casts his enormous, cruel shadow across the world, the seeds of apartheid take root in South Africa. There, a boy called Peekay is born. His childhood is marked by humiliation and abandonment, yet he vows to survive and conceives heroic dreams, which are nothing compared to what life actually has in store for him. He embarks on an epic journey through a land of tribal superstition and modern prejudice where he will learn the power of words, the power to transform lives and the power of one.


I read and loved this as a teen, but hadn't read it in years, so was eager to try it again as I remembered almost nothing of it other than the bare bones. Unfortunately, it couldn't quite live up to my expectations... or rather, it lost its charm along the way. I loved the first half - PeeKay's way of surviving his first boarding school, returning home, meeting Doc, convincing the prison guard to teach him boxing - all of that had exactly the atmosphere I remembered from the book, and I was very happy with the revisit.

Once he started his second boarding school, some of the charm started to disappear though, and by the time he reached the mines, it had gone completely. I can't explain exactly what went wrong, but it was as if Bryce Courtenay had a brilliant idea for the beginning of a book - but no idea how to end it, meaning it just meandered along until he realized, "This is plenty long now - I'd better finish up" and did just that.

I'm still glad to have read it, and would definitely recommend it to people as an interesting view on South Africa during and after World War II, but it did leave me thinking that it lacked... something.

Title: A Little Life
Author: Hanya Yanagihara
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 1.5/5
# pages: 796
Date read: September, 2022

When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude, who serves as their center of gravity.


Over the decades, their relationships deepen and darken, tinged by addiction, success, and pride. Yet their greatest challenge, each comes to realize, is Jude himself, by midlife a terrifyingly talented litigator yet an increasingly broken man, his mind and body scarred by an unspeakable childhood, and haunted by what he fears is a degree of trauma that he’ll not only be unable to overcome—but that will define his life forever.


1.5 star, rounded up on goodreads because of the quality of the writing. I pretty much only finished it because I got stubborn, and skimmed much of the last 200 pages.

My issues with the book:

1) Long book is LONG! And there's absolutely no need for it to be as long as it is. It's not boring as such, but definitely not a page turner either, and could definitely have used a more critical editor to whittle it down a bit.

2) The book is needlessly depressing. Yes, I know that horrible things happen to people, but this just seemed excessive. I now know that the author's intention was to write about a person who was broken beyond repair and it's just... a horrible thing to read about. Also, what's her point? That some people are beyond saving, and shouldn't even try? How's that for an uplifting commentary on life?

3) Jude should have been forced into therapy YEARS ago. I do understand that he didn't seek it out himself, but his friends, Harold, Andy... SOMEBODY should have forced him.

Honestly, in the end I couldn't even feel sorry for Jude any longer. It just seemed too unrealistic, too manipulative, too... too much! Other people told me they sobbed through the last few chapters - I was skimming at this point, because I just didn't care. I'd put in enough effort that I wanted to finish the book and learn what happened. But apart from that? Nope, didn't care.

So why still two stars instead of just one? Well, partly because I can't give half-stars here, and partly because any author who can keep me reading through almost 800 pages of writing (even if it did take me several months) obviously has something going for her. But this is definitely one of those books where I do NOT get the hype.

Title: Anxious People
Author: Fredrik Backman
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 3/5
# pages: 360
Date read: January, 2022

Viewing an apartment normally doesn’t turn into a life-or-death situation, but this particular open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes everyone in the apartment hostage. As the pressure mounts, the eight strangers begin slowly opening up to one another and reveal long-hidden truths.

First is Zara, a wealthy bank director who has been too busy to care about anyone else until tragedy changed her life. Now, she’s obsessed with visiting open houses to see how ordinary people live—and, perhaps, to set an old wrong to right. Then there’s Roger and Anna-Lena, an Ikea-addicted retired couple who are on a never-ending hunt for fixer-uppers to hide the fact that they don’t know how to fix their own failing marriage. Julia and Ro are a young lesbian couple and soon-to-be parents who are nervous about their chances for a successful life together since they can’t agree on anything. And there’s Estelle, an eighty-year-old woman who has lived long enough to be unimpressed by a masked bank robber waving a gun in her face. And despite the story she tells them all, Estelle hasn’t really come to the apartment to view it for her daughter, and her husband really isn’t outside parking the car.


As police surround the premises and television channels broadcast the hostage situation live, the tension mounts and even deeper secrets are slowly revealed. Before long, the robber must decide which is the more terrifying prospect: going out to face the police, or staying in the apartment with this group of impossible people.


A hard book to review as the writing style definitely took some getting used to. The first 70 pages took 2.5 months - the last 290 pages took 2.5 days!

Once I got used to the writing style and jumping back and forth in time I did quite enjoy it, and wanted to know what happened next, and how everything would get sorted. It's not as realistic as the other books I've read by Backman (or as I had assumed), but the characters came to life, and - fools or not - I grew to care for many of them.

Not Backman's best (that's still "Britt-Marie Was Here"), but not his worst either.

Title: Violet (For the Love of Purple #3)
Author: Audrey Faye
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 153
Date read: February, 2021

She’s empathic. He’s autistic. Born different - and about to discover what lives in the magical place where their differences meet.

Violet feels all the things, catches glimpses of the future, and knows exactly the right pillow for every person she meets, which is good, because they rarely choose the right ones.

Linus isn’t usually a baker, but for three weeks every year, he returns to the town where he was once a small boy with garbled words and bakes bread so that his aunt can take her annual vacation.

There’s a whole town with opinions on whether the two of them belong together. Fortunately, there are also friends with hammers, and hooch-making ghosts.


A very fitting final book in the trilogy. Book two is still my favourite, but the series as a whole makes for great comfort reading. I really liked Linus, and loved seeing how people opened up to him and were willing to make changes to meet his needs.

Title: Blue (For the Love of Purple #2)
Author: Audrey Faye
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 158 pages
Date read: January 2021, October 2024

Blue’s a builder. A content one, now that she’s found a town that respects her skills and it’s finally stopped raining.

Grim wasn’t expecting anyone to walk in the door of his studio, but he knows better than to ignore the clay when it starts whispering. He just wishes it had something a little less mysterious to say about the woman with dusty boots and wary eyes.

Romance isn’t what either of them are looking for. But it might sneak up on them anyhow.


A lot better than the first one. I loved seeing Blue and Grim together, and read most of it with a huge smile on my face. Just goes to show that I'd much rather read about carpentry and clay throwing than chart reading any day of the week ;-) And the characters are charming as always. Can't wait for the last book in the series now!

Title: The Midnight Library
Author: Matt Haig
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 304
Date read: January, 2021

Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better?

Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Faced with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, following a different career, undoing old breakups, realizing her dreams of becoming a glaciologist; she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.



Interesting premise and a very quick read. Very predictable ending, but as I really enjoyed the journey to get there, that didn't bother me at all. I was occasionally worried that the book would end up taking a turn for the very depressing, but fortunately that never happened, and I rather liked the small vignettes we got to see of Nora's various lives... although it must have been exceedingly weird to enter a new life with absolutely no memory of the events it took her to get there!! Good thing google's a thing ;-)

It did get me thinking - which alternative lives would I want to 'read' myself?

Title: Hideaway
Author: Nora Roberts
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4/5
# pages: 454
Date read:
July, 2020

Caitlyn Sullivan had come from a long line of Hollywood royalty, stretching back to her Irish immigrant great-grandfather. At nine, she was already a star—yet still an innocent child who loved to play hide and seek with her cousins at the family home in Big Sur. It was during one of those games that she disappeared. Some may have considered her a pampered princess, but Cate was in fact a smart, scrappy fighter, and she managed to escape her abductors. Dillon Cooper was shocked to find the bloodied, exhausted girl huddled in his house—but when the teenager and his family heard her story they provided refuge, reuniting her with her loved ones.

Cate’s ordeal, though, was far from over. First came the discovery of a shocking betrayal that would send someone she’d trusted to prison. Then there were years spent away in western Ireland, peaceful and protected but with restlessness growing in her soul. Finally, she would return to Los Angeles, gathering the courage to act again and get past the trauma that had derailed her life. What she didn’t yet know was that two seeds had been planted that long-ago night—one of a great love, and one of a terrible vengeance…


Just as captivating as I have come to expect from Nora Roberts' newer books. As always, it is a story about resilience and overcoming a traumatic experience, but while I recognize Nora Roberts' books as being formulaic, it really doesn't bother me, as I still find them very well-written and engaging. I grew to love Cate and her grandparents, and adored Dillon and his family.

I subtracted the last star, because I found the ending a bit too sudden. It didn't really feel like all ends were tied up - or that all motives were explained at least. But that was a minor detail in an otherwise excellent book.

Title: Flexible (Collapsible #2)
Author: Ruth Buchanan
Genre: Fiction
Rating: 4.5/5
# pages: 143
Date read: February, 2020

Summer's over, and Rachel Cooper is back! Limping staunchly into the fray, she's determined to develop flexibility in more than just her stiff ankle. With Lynn and Ann at her side, she tackles the challenges of the new school year with her own unique blend of panicked bravado. With new students, new classes, and--could it be?--the possibility of new love in her life, she's already got plenty to keep her flailing. But there's more. While fulfilling her role as director of the school's fall play, she begins to suspect that not all the drama is playing out onstage. Uncovering a series of unsettling clues, she works to solve the backstage mystery before the final curtain falls.


Honestly? I think I liked this even more than the first book in the series. I loved the acting, I loved the English classes (and got a small thrill out of the fact that I, myself have taken a class on that very Shakespeare play, given by the author herself!), I loved the kids, I liked that Rachel's relationships with Sharon, Lee and Ian was explored further. All meaning that I finished the book and turned right on to the next book in the series!